Nvidia's GTX 1060 Mini promises big power in a small package

Zotac has unleashed new GTX 1060 Mini and AMP Edition cards

Zotac has revealed a pair of GeForce GTX 1060 cards including a new Mini offering designed to fit in small PC cases.

The GeForce GTX 1060 Mini (pictured above) is 6.85-inches long (a tad under 17.5cm) meaning it should fit in a Mini-ITX case.

Zotac has equipped this model with what it describes as a carefully crafted aluminum heatsink and a 90mm fan in direct contact with the GPU, to enable more efficient cooling and to ensure temperatures don't get out of hand with the power of the GTX 1060 crammed into a smaller space.

The GTX 1060 Mini has a base clock speed of 1,506MHz with boost to 1,708MHz.

AMP it up

Zotac is also unleashing a GTX 1060 AMP Edition which is slightly bigger at 8.27-inches long (21cm) and runs with a base clock of 1,556MHz with boost to 1,771MHz.

For cooling, it boasts the IceStorm system which offers two 90mm fans alongside 8mm copper heat pipes, with wide blades on the fans designed to deliver better airflow, meaning they can operate effectively at a lower speed, therefore keeping noise down.

Zotac claims the fans are "barely audible" even when under load, and the card is silent when idle.

Both graphics cards will arrive later this month with pricing still to be confirmed.

Those after a more powerful compact graphics card might want to take a look at Gigabyte's GTX 1070 Mini, which again is designed to fit in a Mini-ITX case. Going for a smaller size doesn't mean you have to sacrifice performance these days.